Everything about Edgar Of Scotland totally explained
Edgar (Mediaeval Gaelic:
Étgar mac Maíl Choluim; Modern Gaelic:
Eagar mac Mhaoil Chaluim; Mediaeval English:
Eadgar Margotsson), nicknamed
Probus, "the Valiant" (c.
1074–
8 January,
1107), was
king of Scots from 1097 to 1107. He was the son of
Malcolm III (Máel Coluim mac Donnchada) and
Margaret of Wessex (later Saint Margaret).
Edgar claimed the kingship in early 1095, following the murder of his half-brother
Duncan II (Donnchad mac Maíl Coluim) in late 1094 by
Máel Petair of Mearns, a supporter of Edgar's uncle
Donald III (Domnall Bán mac Donnchada). His older brother
Edmund sided with Donald, presumably in return for an appanage and acknowledgement as the heir of the ageing and son-less Donald.
Edgar received limited support from
William II (William Rufus) as Duncan had before him; however, the English king was occupied with a revolt led by
Robert de Mowbray,
Earl of Northumbria, who appears to have had the support of Donald and Edmund. Rufus campaigned in northern England for much of 1095, and during this time Edgar gained control only of
Lothian. A
charter issued at
Durham at this time names him "... son of Máel Coluim King of Scots ... possessing the whole land of Lothian and the kingship of the Scots by the gift of my lord William, king of the English, and by paternal heritage."
Edgar's claims had the support of his brothers
Alexander and
David —
Ethelred was
Abbot of Dunkeld, and Edmund was divided from his siblings by his support of Donald — and his uncle
Edgar Ætheling as these witnessed the charter at Durham.
William Rufus spent 1096 in
Normandy which he bought from his brother
Robert Curthose, and it wasn't until 1097 that Edgar received the further support which led to the defeat of Donald and Edmund in a hard-fought campaign led by Edgar Ætheling.
Although
Geoffrey Gaimar claimed that Edgar owed feudal service to William Rufus, it's clear from Rufus's agreement to pay Edgar 40 or 60 shillings a day maintenance when in attendance at the English court that this was less than accurate. In any event, he did attend the court on occasion. On
29 May 1099, for example, Edgar served as sword-bearer at the great feast to inaugurate
Westminster Hall. After William Rufus's death, however, Edgar ceased to appear at the English court. He wasn't present at the coronation of
Henry I.
Edgar was certainly not heir by
primogeniture, as later kings would be, since Duncan II had a legitimate son and heir in the person of
William fitz Duncan. With Donald and Edmund removed, however, Edgar was uncontested king of Scots, and his reign incurred no major crisis. Compared with his rise to power, Edgar's reign is obscure. One notable act was his gift of a
camel (or perhaps an
elephant) to his fellow Gael
Muircheartach Ua Briain,
High King of Ireland.
In 1098, Edgar signed a treaty with
Magnus Barefoot,
King of Norway, setting the boundary between Scots and Norwegian claims in the west. By ceding claims to the
Hebrides and
Kintyre to Magnus, Edgar acknowledged the practical realities of the existing situation. Edgar's religious foundations included a
priory at
Coldingham in 1098, associated with the
Convent of Durham. At
Dunfermline Abbey he sought support from
Anselm of Canterbury with his mother's foundation from which the monks of
Canterbury may have been expelled by Domnall Bán.
Edgar died in
Edinburgh on 8 January, 1107 and was buried at Dunfermline Abbey. Unmarried and childless, he acknowledged his brother Alexander as his successor. Edgar's will also granted David an
appanage in "Cumbria" (the lands of the former
Kingdom of Strathclyde), and perhaps also in southern parts of Lothian. David would later be known as
Prince of the CumbriansFurther Information
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